Just like the Nationals with Stephen Strasburg in 2012 and the Mets with Matt Harvey last season, the Miami Marlins will monitor ace Jose Fernandez' innings this year with the pitcher only being two summers removed from Tommy John surgery.

Add in the fact Fernandez is also represented by Scott Boras, and there are plenty of parallels. And much like the Mets with Harvey, the Marlins aim to avoid the backlash that can come with holding a pitcher back.

The Nationals took plenty of criticism for their shutdown of Strasburg in 2012, so the Mets took a different path in 2015 hoping to steer clear of a similar situation. They were able to pitch Harvey in the postseason, but they still took heat from fans and the media for their handling of his workload.

The Marlins believe they can push Fernandez to 180 innings, but it could get interesting if Miami finds themselves in a pennant race, as the Nats and Mets did with their own post-Tommy John pitchers.

No one seems to have found the perfect solution yet. We'll see if they have better luck in the public forum than the Nats and the Mets did.

It's that wonderful time of year again — when baseball teams flock to warmer climates for spring training and the regular season is practically around the corner — and Bryce Harper is already killing it.

It took the Washington Nationals a few games to brush away their offseason cobwebs and get back into gear, but since the beginning of March, they're riding a five-game win streak as of Sunday the 4th.

They are 6-4-1 in spring training going into Monday's matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Since Thursday, the Nats have taken down — in order — the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, defending World Series champion Houston Astros, the Detroit Tigers and the Mets again. Sunday's 6-2 win against the Tigers was in large part thanks to Harper's bat, as the star of the team drilled his first home run of spring training.

We are fortunate enough to live in a world where we can watch a former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback (attempt to) hit against a three-time Cy Young pitcher in a Major League Baseball preseason game.

Max Scherzer took less than a minute to strike out Tim Tebow, who was batting cleanup for the Mets in a spring training game Friday. You can watch the whole at-bat here:

Tebow was able to redeem himself later in the game with his first hit of the year against Nats prospect Erick Fedde. He will likely begin the season with the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies, but Mets GM Sandy Alderson said he believes Tebow will eventually see some at-bats in the Majors.